There is a continuing problem in the restaurant business to minimize the loss of cutlery and other valuable metal objects into refuse containers. The problem is particularly severe when the owner or manager of the restaurant is absent, or the restaurant is very busy. Either deliberately or inadvertently, leftover food on a plate together with one or more items of cutlery are simply scraped by lazy or careless busboys into the refuse container. Thus expensive cutlery is lost to refuse disposal on a steady basis and must be replaced.
The applicant is aware of the following references which disclose devices which are more or less relevant to this area of the art:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issue Date Inventor ______________________________________ 4,367,138 January 4, 1983 Kustas 4,494,657 January 22, 1985 Oldenkamp ______________________________________
Kustas discloses a cylindrically shaped scraper which is mounted on a steel dish cleaning table which in turn is mounted over a refuse container. The interior of the scraper includes a plurality of magnets. The magnets attract and hold stainless steel flatware when food and wastepaper, together with the flatware, are passed through the interior of the scraper.
Oldenkamp discloses a housing member for removing magnetic articles from a flow of loosely packed material containing a mixture of magnetic articles and non-magnetic articles. The housing member mounts on the top of a rubbish receptacle and is used for separating metal objects such as tableware from rubbish which consists of food and paper waste.
Other references which may be of interest are cited on the cover sheets of the Kustas and Oldenkamp patents, and in the Background portion of each of those two patents.